“Found out that my brother’s finally found himself a mare friend. I actually got to meet her. Nice girl, kinda tomboyish. Think her name was Firefly?”
A week since that night had gone by. Velvet had returned to her hometown of Fillydelphia, and was still awaiting the letter of confirmation about whether her novel was accepted. She had spent much of that week in anxiety over the matter, her worries ranging from its simply not being reviewed yet, all the way to the letter being lost in transit.
Having noticed the Unicorn mare’s frazzled state of mind, her friend, Felicity, made it her goal of the day to distract Twilight Velvet from the topic as a whole. The tactic worked at first, but eventually a new seed of worry had found root in Velvet’s mind: she still had not heard from Daring Do. While normally she would rationally think about this and just assume that her friend was alright, given her experience, in Velvet’s already anxious state of mind, the worry blossomed in a much more drastic measure than it should have.
This was the thought process the writer found flitting about her brain while she sat in the Belle Park of Fillydelphia. The University had just let out, however Felicity still had her own job to attend to, so there was not much to distract Velvet’s mind any longer, “It’s just like the first time you tried, Velvet. They’re going to find something wrong with the story. Some little nitpicky thing that will keep it from being published, I just know it.” She said to herself, seated upon a park bench, watching the birds flit through the branches above her.
Once again, she was speaking to herself out loud. There was no pony very nearby, so she had no reason to feel self-conscious about the habit, “And then there’s the whole fact about Daring… I wonder what kind of adventure she had this time around… Oh, I just hope that she’s alright.” Velvet said, taking her gaze off of the birds and down to the street before her.
However, all of her worries were dispelled when she heard a familiar voice sounding from above and behind her, “Well, I can tell you right now that it involved a lot of Griffins, and quite a few death threats, which is kind of to be expected in the Griffin Kingdoms. But aside from that, the whole thing was awesome!! I mean, I managed to stop an all-out war between two clans, and I’m apparently an honorary member of some sort of organization of Griffins.”
Velvet leapt from her park bench in shock, giving an involuntary yelp. As soon as her hooves touched down, she wheeled about to face the owner. And what she saw caused a wide smile to come over her features, “Daring! You’re not dead!” She said happily.
“Well, duh.” The Pegasus mare chuckled, lowering herself from the air on gently flapping wings. No sooner had she touched down than Velvet had flung her forelegs around the adventurer’s neck in a friendly embrace. Daring Do chuckled, returning the gesture with a single hoof, “Heh, glad to see you too, Vel.”
The Unicorn released her friend, and backed up a few feet, glancing over her figure for any sign of a new injury, or just to be sure that it was really her. And it was, from the color of her coat, the grayscale rainbow mane, and the compass rose cutie mark. There were just two differences that Velvet noticed. Those two being that Daring’s body was devoid of her jacket, and her signature hat was not to be seen atop her head. While her head remained barren of apparel, Daring was wearing a scarf of the same green color as her jacket about her neck. Velvet noticed that it was positioned in such a way so as to cover the three scars that were emblazoned on Daring’s chest.
The Pegasus had seemed to read Velvet’s expression, “Yeah, I wear this to cover the scars. Helps avoid annoying questions, and being labeled as an attention-seeker with ponies not believing the story behind it,” she explained, “Believe it or not, ponies here in Equestria have a harder time accepting that it came from a spirit, than just assuming that I’m an idiot that wandered into Everfree and had a run in with some Timberwolves.” She finished, with an underlying hint of bitterness creeping into her voice.
Twilight Velvet furrowed her brows at that. It did make sense, when she thought about it. Many only assumed that Ahuizotl was a myth. She had believed that herself, until she had found undeniable evidence that the spirit really did exist. Before the Unicorn could speak on this however, Daring shrugged past the topic, signifying this as she started to walk down the path, “So! This is my first time visiting Fillydelphia, and I have absolutely no clue where anything is, And I need a place to relax. Mind helping me out with that?”
Velvet blinked a couple times as her mind caught up, before she trotted after Daring. One she was on level with the Pegasus, she nodded, “Um, yeah, I know a place. Come with me.” The writer brushed past Daring, gesturing for her to follow.
The walk was not a very long one. It lasted about five minutes, and not much conversation above a few passing comments on the park coming from Daring Do at odd intervals. But eventually, they found themselves nearing a café, in actuality much like the one in Canterlot that had reminded Velvet of home. In a short time, the two mares found themselves seated outdoors, a steaming mug of tea before each of them. The first few minutes were spent in an awkward silence, with Velvet waiting for Daring to start speaking. The Pegasus had stated that she felt she needed to relax, so Velvet was willing to let her take her time to get settled. Eventually, it became apparent to the Unicorn that her friend was waiting on her, so she spoke up, “So… How long have you been back in Equestria?” She asked, that being the only question that came to her mind.
Daring didn’t answer at first, having already had her mug halfway to her lips as it was asked. The Pegasus carried through with taking a sip and set the mug carefully down before she answered, “About three days. I would have come to see you sooner, but a few things came up that took slight priority,” she cringed, “Feels kinda horrible saying that, now that I’ve done so out loud, and not just in my head.”
Velvet waved a hoof, “No, it’s alright. I understand. Mind if I ask what these things were?”
“Oh, yeah! Well, first day I got back from the Griffon Kingdoms, I went to visit my family again. Kind of a habit, you know? Get back from a life risking adventure; let the kinfolk know you’re still kicking,” another quick sip of tea interrupts the Pegasus’ story briefly, “Anyway, found out that my brother’s finally found himself a mare friend. I actually got to meet her. Nice girl, kinda tomboyish. Think her name was Firefly?” Daring shrugs, “But yeah, that’s cool.”
She falls silent for a few seconds, looking at Velvet who was wearing a slightly surprised expression – that of having her eyebrows raised, “I just realized I never told you I had a brother. He’s a little calmer than I am, but he’s still pretty awesome,” she clears her throat, resituates her position, and then continues, “Spent the day hanging around home, then the next day – which was yesterday, actually – I was going to come here to try and find you, but that was derailed when I got a letter from none other than Princess Celestia, asking me to come to Canterlot as soon as possible.”
Velvet interrupted the narrative with a laugh, “Well, at least you had an excuse for not finding me sooner! If I was in your place, I would have gone to see the Princess myself first.”
Daring gave her a hurt look, “Ouch.” It was clear by her tone, however, that she was joking. Her expression changed to one of amusement, and she laughed shortly before continuing her recounting of the past day, “So as I was saying. I got a letter from the Princess summoning me to Canterlot, so I headed up there as quickly as the train could take me. And there was some pretty exciting news to come out of that visit. Remember when we got back from Caballo, I took off pretty quickly? I went to see her, and hand the Statue off to her to do with as she pleases. I guess she got whatever she wanted from it, so now she wants to put it in the museum, and he asked if I wanted my name up there with it.”
Velvet sat forward, “Really? That’s great! What’d you say?”
“No.” Daring Do replied, in a matter of fact manner.
The Unicorn across from her nearly fell over backwards at that. She regained her composure adequately enough to speak, “What?! Why?! Daring, you could have been famous for that!”
The Pegasus waved her hoof dismissively, “Nah, my name’s already going to be a house hold name after your book gets published. Besides, I wasn’t alone in finding that artifact,” she gives a sly wink, “And you didn’t quite let me finish earlier. I said no, and explained that I had help, so I had to talk to my assistant about it, see what she wanted to do about it. Celestia agreed, and asked me to come back with an answer soon as I could.”
Velvet could have answered Daring’s unasked question quite simply there, but instead she focused on an earlier topic the Pegasus had mentioned. That of her book getting published, “Oh yeah… About that, I’m not so sure it’s going to happen. I went to the publishing office in Canterlot to give them the manuscript, and they said that they’d send me a letter letting me know their verdict. That was a week ago, and I still haven’t heard from them.”
In complete opposition to what she had been expecting to happen, Daring Do laughed, “Why is she laughing?! Did she not just hear what I said?!” Velvet thought irritably.
Before she could give voice to this, however, Daring spoke, “Oh contraire my friend! You didn’t let me explain what happened today. Since I finally had a free moment, I made my way here, to Fillydelphia. Asked around about you, and I was directed to your house. Just came from there, actually. Nice place, your folks are pretty cool too. Anyway, I had a little chat with them while we waited for you to get off work. While that was going on, the mailpony stopped by and dropped this off,” as she spoke, Daring reached up and felt about in her scarf until she produced a letter, “From the Starswirl Academic Publisher’s Office in Canterlot, addressed to one Twilight Velvet.”
Velvet’s eyes lit up like two beacons. Daring gave a sly smile, and held the letter out. Her friend took it in her light magenta hued magical aura, and tentatively opened it. Soon as the seal was broken, Velvet dropped the envelope and unfolded the paper within, reading over it silently, her lips moving subtly as she did. Daring simply finished off her tea, chuckling inwardly as the Unicorn read. As she set her mug down, the adventurer raised an eyebrow at her wide-eyed friend, “Well? What’d they say?” From her tone, she seemed pretty confident that she already knew.
Twilight Velvet carefully set the letter down, blinking a few times as she fought to regain control of her shocked expression. She found herself victorious, and turned her gaze to Daring, “They said yes,” she said, as if in disbelief. But as the reality of it sunk in, she spoke again in a more confident tone, “Dare! They said yes!! It’s getting published!” She frantically waved her hooves over her head in an effort to shed some of the energy building up inside of her.
Daring gave a hearty laugh, clapping her hooves together twice, “See? I knew they would! I’m not just saying that ‘cause you’re my friend, and the story features my awesomeness, but because the story itself is awesome, and you’re a good writer! What did I tell you about having faith in yourself, Vel?”
The Unicorn tried to regain her composure, though it was evident that she was still energized. A few of the other customers of the café were shooting her odd looks, but that was far as the attention went. Velvet bounced slightly in her seat as she answered, “It’s just that I’ve never had anything published before… I really wasn’t expecting this. I—” something that Daring had said caught her attention, stopping her speech in its tracks, “When have you ever read any of my works?”
Daring waved a hoof dismissively, “Eh, your parents still had some of your old stuff boxed away. And I read what you had written of our adventure while you were asleep on the way home.”
The casual way in which she answered shocked Velvet, but before she could inquire further, Daring Do switched gears and spoke once again, “But you never answered my earlier question, that I didn’t exactly ask. What do you say about the museum feature of the Statue mentioning us?”
Velvet shook her head as her mind caught up the Pegasus’ speech. After a second, she finally managed to answer, “I guess that’d be alright? I don’t entirely know what to say about it… What were you thinking?”
Daring shrugged, “I wasn’t really planning on having my name mentioned. Like I said, my name’ll already be enough of a household name once your book hits shelves. Yours will be too, of course. Do you want your name in that museum?”
It was an enticing thought. Be credited with finding a treasure like the Statue. But Velvet couldn’t allow herself that credit without Daring being honored as well. Besides, she wrote the book about it. It may have been trivial, but the Unicorn felt that receiving credit for the find after writing a book about the adventure featuring her friend with no hint of her would just be a lot of headaches to deal with. Velvet shook her head, “No, I don’t think I will. Though I do have an idea of what it could say. Maybe it could just mention that the Statue was ‘found by an intrepid adventurer, who graciously donated the artifact, but wishes to remain anonymous’, or something like that.”
Daring tapped a hoof to her chin, contemplating it for a few seconds. Eventually, she nodded, “Yeah. That sounds pretty good actually. Though I think it should mention ‘adventurers’, considering you were there.”
Velvet nodded enthusiastically, “That would be alright. I’m pretty sure most ponies will believe my story is a work of fiction anyway, so they can just think of it as somepony’s idea of how it was found? But that would possibly conflict with what I already have written. If it mentions ‘adventurers’, where my book only features one, you, that would be pretty inconsistent.”
The Pegasus sighed, but the writer continued before she was able to speak, “Let’s just have them mention one. But I have an idea. I have to go to Canterlot anyway to sign some papers before the book can be published in the first place, and you have to go there to give Celestia your answer. How’s about we both go to give Celestia the answer, and while we’re there get a commemoration of both our involvements in finding the Statue, like a photo or something. Sound good?”
Daring needed no time to consider this and she stood, promptly answered, “Alright, I guess that’d be alright! We can head out whenever you’re ready.”
Velvet also stood, “It’s settled then! Let me just pay for this, let the family know and we’ll be off!”
The Pegasus lifted herself into the air, “Alright! I’ll meet you at the train station. Oh, and I’ll tell you all about my escapade in the Griffon Kingdoms on the way, okay? See you then!”
And with that, the two mares parted ways for the time being. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, Velvet had paid the bill, returned home briefly to notify her parents of her success and that she was going to Canterlot to finalize the deal, and raced as quickly as she could to the train station to meet with Daring. Once they had met up once again, the two boarded the train, and were well on their way to the capital city of Equestria.